A Dynamic ESCRT for Splitting Membranes

I’m so excited to share a drawing I made for my own paper
recently published in Nature Cell
Biology!

This artwork illustrates the dynamics of a protein machinery for splitting membranes. This machinery, called ESCRT-III, forms spirals that constantly exchange their building blocks with the help of a protein called VPS4. This remodeling allows the spirals to change their shape and constrict membranes until they split, for example in the final step of cell division that separates the emerging daughter cells.